


The Marine

by pairatime



Series: Whitney's story [2]
Category: Smallville
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-01
Updated: 2012-08-01
Packaged: 2017-11-11 05:30:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/475027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pairatime/pseuds/pairatime
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Whitney has a job and it reminds him out how it got where he is</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Marine

**Author's Note:**

> Season 3 Episode 18 Big Bang prompts: Fire, Water, Beginning, Changes, Silence, Alone, Time

The Base was flooding. Its outer dome breached when the reactor went critical and detonated. All caused by an experimental clone being thrown into the energy web that had been meant to give it super powers. Or that had been Lex’s hope; it mostly seemed to burn him to a crisp. And anyone around him, like scientists or say a clandestine hero trying to destroy the 33.1 base, which may have been the one to throw the aforementioned clone. 

Whitney just let out a long breath as he forced his hand to unclench, holding back the scream he really wanted to make as he felt the skin being pulled away from the meat by the action. 

The whole left side of his body was burnt, his face and lower arm, the only skin visible, were both a deep red and covered with blisters while his upper leg and side were covered by his wetsuit, now crumpled and warped instead of smooth, but they felt just as raw and painful.

Whitney knew the burns wouldn’t kill him but the water would if he didn’t do something soon. So Whitney pushed away the pain, something he’s gotten a lot of practice doing since he found that his body could recover from almost any injury if he gave himself the time, and activated the computer bringing up the base controls and locking down the base, sealing the water out, and himself in.

Whitney just let out another breathe as he let himself slide to the floor. His body was just so tired and now that he wasn’t in any immediate danger the adrenaline was wearing off, he just couldn’t keep his eyes open, sometimes being a hero sucked.

Eighteen months Earlier  
Star City: Queen Estate

Whitney had spend half of basic running, and half of football practice before that running, when he wasn’t throwing the ball, and now he spent an hour each morning running. And the worst part was it was his own choice this time. He’s the one that wanted to be a hero; he’s the one that wanted to help.

“I’m so tired of training,” Whitney said more to himself that anyone else as he slowed to a stop when he reached the mid-sized clearing hidden in the woods of the Queen Estate.

The clearing served as the above ground training area of the Estate with targets for archery, patches of soft dirt and grass marked for hand to hand training, a nearby river for swimming and scuba practice, a dozen trails for running and a phony tree that stored water, protein bars and other basics. And at the moment the clearing also held Oliver Queen.

“Every Hero needs to train,” Oliver said aloud as he cocked his arrow aiming for a target beyond the clearing and in the woods themselves.

“Why do you think I’m here,” Whitney shot back as he took a water bottle from the tree before he joined Oliver. “Are you sure you don’t have super-vision or something, because I can’t even see the target.”

“Yes you can, you just don’t realize it’s the target and not another tree,” Oliver answered as he grinned. “So ten miles already then I guess it’s time to do some marksmanship of your own.”

“I’m not using a bow, they aren’t my thing,” Whitney told Oliver not for the first time as he looked pointedly at the bow Oliver had held up toward Whitney.

“I’ll get you to use one some day but no not really what I had in mind,” Oliver said as he walked over to a covered table, “I was thinking more alone the lines of these,” he added as he pulled off the sheet that had been protecting an array of guns, mostly handguns but also a couple of machineguns as well.

“Now these I can work with,” Whitney said smiling as he picked up one of the handguns then stopped, weighing it with his hand before frowning and picking up a different one with his other hand, frowning even more as he did so. Whitney slowly made his way through half the guns before he finally spoke. “What’s did you do to these guns? They’re way to light and what’s with their clips,” he asked as he popped the clip out of one of the handguns to fine it was a solid black bar with a red light running up the side of it with gray words stating full, half, and critical along the light.

“We’re heroes as can’t us real guns, it’s against a code or something,” Oliver told Whitney. “So these are a bit different, half use energy blast, created by Xanatos Enterprises but they are useful, and the other half have modified bullets, taser charges, knockout drugs, or an EM pulse,” Oliver explained as he pointed to different guns.

“And here I was hoping for something I’m use to,” Whitney answered back as he held out the different weapons testing how they felt in his hands. “I’m going to have to start all over and break all my old habits. So what do these energy blast look like,” Whitney asked as he aimed at one of the mid ranged targets.

He slowly squeezed the trigger and watched as a red light shot out. The moment the red light touched the target it burst into flames centered just below the red light. “No kick,” he said as he watched, “and it burned under where it hit?” Whitney said as he looked over at Oliver.

“The light is just a tracker the energy that does the damage isn’t visible to the naked eye,” Oliver answered.

“So I have to relearn how to aim. Won’t that just be fun then,” Whitney said as he set it down and picked up the next gun.

Present  
33.1 Base: Underreef

Whitney woke with a start as he felt water lapping at his leg, seeping through the left leg of his wetsuit where it had partly melted. He wiped clear the grime and crud from his eyes as he forced them to focus as he tried to wake himself up. As he fully woke up he realized the odd pressure that he felt in his ears was from the air being forced up by the water flowing into the room.

The largest drawback to his ability was the energy it took to heal. Too much and it just knocked him out and he was always starving afterwards. It may have been better then dead but it was still a problem. Now more then ever since during his nap the doors had started to fail and now the main chamber was flooding, the floor already covered by a few inches and more was pushing through the cracks in the door every moment.

Whitney pulled open his satchel, half destroyed in the early blast, and started taking innovatory of what he had to work with. The handful of bombs he had planned on using on the place looked mostly intact as did the com unit, his small air tank wasn’t and his handful of energy bars were more then half fried. Whitney just let out a breath as he pulled out one that looked the least toasted and finished it off in a few bits before pushing himself up.

Lucky for Whitney the computer systems were still working, now to find out if they could help him find a way out.

A Year and a Half Earlier  
Star City: Queen Estate

“What is that?” Whitney asked as he watched Oliver tap a text into his smart phone.

“Bart and AC just let me know they’re running a bit late, just letting them know it’s fine,” Oliver told Whitney as he dropped the phone on the table checked his hair in the mirror.

“How,” Whitney asked as he picked up the phone turning it over and looking at it, “Is this a cell phone?”

“Yeah,” Oliver answered before pausing and turning to Whitney, “You know what a…they looked a lot different four years ago, right I forgot about that.”

“It really is the little things that stand out the most,” Whitney said as he dropped the phone back onto the table. “You expect some stuff, the news, the president, fashion. You know those will be different if you’re gone for a while but…phones, computers. I mean have you seen the internet, it was four years not forty,” Whitney complained as he let out a breath and fell against the wall.

“You’ll get used to it but it will take some times. It took me most of a year to get used to the changes and I was only cut off for a couple years.” Oliver said with a half smile as he pulled Whitney away from the wall. “Why don’t we get a head start on showing you the city and getting you off the Estate? Bart and AC can just catch up with us later. Although since this was his idea and he can super-speed you’d think he could be on time.”

“Bart on time when AC’s around? I don’ think it works that way,” Whitney responded with a chuckle as he let Oliver pull him out the door and to the waiting car.

Present  
33.1 Base: Underreef

Whitney studied the map before him, rotating it ever which way as he tried to memorize it. His best chance of getting out of the facility was the service tunnel where they bough in all the heavy equipment. If he could find a non-flooded path to it and if the tunnel itself wasn’t too flooded as well.

But first Whitney needed to deal with his wetsuit. When it half melted it has lost much of its flexibility and was reducing his range of motion and the protection it offered from the cold water wasn’t worth anything if he ended up drowning because he couldn’t reach something. He was still fairly sure he could drown.

He just grit his teeth as he pulled the suit off, feeling the outer level of skin peel off with it along the length of his whole left side. Whitney has to clamp down on the feeling of nausea at the sight of his own skin on the floor melted into the suit after he dropped it to the ground. He had to continue to fight it was he ran his right hand over the left side of his body pulling off any remaining dead and burnt skin that stayed behind, sending it to the floor as well.

Being able to recover from almost anything was nice but sometimes…sometimes it was just gross.

Two Years Earlier  
Star City: Queen Estate

“This blood is…it’s incredible. The regenerative abilities are impressive,” doctor Hamilton said as he looked up from the computer that was running test on Whitney’s blood.

“We already knew that, we saw it in action,” Oliver said as he glanced over at where AC and Bart were talking quietly with each other.

“Yes, but I wouldn’t recommend doing that again. AC’s blood isn’t human and that’s why his body didn’t reject Mr. Fordman’s-”

“Whitney, call me Whitney,” Whitney said interrupting Hamilton for a moment.

“Yes, Whitney’s blood. And Whitney seems to have a very odd blood type. I’m not sure why, not yet, but he doesn’t have any known blood type so don’t do that again. Not until I’ve run some test anyway,” Hamilton finished as he glanced at the read about again.

“That’s never come up before, and I’ve taken blood tests before, what changed it?” Whitney asked.

“Likely whatever activated this ability, without extensive testing and a base line I can’t explain farther.”

“My ability…” Whitney said just trailing off.

“Just what is his ability? What can you tell about it for now?” Oliver asked. “How much can he take and just how much is Lex going to want him back.”

“Well to start with you’re not immortal, so far I see no signs of anything other the standard ageing, it does seem optimized so baring anything else your body is more likely to make it to 105-110 then anyone else in the room but it will reach it limits just like anyone else. And you do heal faster then normal but enough trauma will still kill you. A bullet to the head or chest is still deadly. If the damage doesn’t kill you, then you will recover, quickly. But you can still die,” The doctor stated clearly.

“And let me guess, to know just how much he can take is going to take some more testing?” Oliver asked as he looked at his doctor.

“Yes. I need to do some long term studies to better understand what I’m seeing.

“They can wait. I’m done with tests for the moment. I’m good he’s good,” Whitney added pointing to AC “so it’s all fine.”

“No problem Whitney. Emil can start his text next week. Until then we need to get you used to all the changes of the last few years,” Oliver said with a smile.

Present  
33.1 Base: Underreef

Five tunnels later Whitney finally found a way to the service tunnel that wasn’t flooded beyond use. But now the door to the service tunnel was sealed and the key pad has lost power. Why Lex didn’t have manual overrides was anyone’s guess but it meant he wasn’t going to be able to open the door the normal way.

Attaching one of the bombs to the door he stepped back and braced himself. If there was water on the other side he wasn’t going to be able to close the doors back up.

Whitney took a few deep breaths before hitting the button detonating the explosive shattering the concrete and metal along with Whitney’s ears.

He couldn’t hear the roar of the water but he could see it flooding through the door way. The service tunnel had flooded, at least partly.

Taking as big a breath as he could he ran at the rush of water and dived into it. Fighting against the current as he swam up as fast as he could through the rushing water. The service tunnel sloped upwards, Whitney just hoped it was enough so it wasn’t all flooded.

Pushing against the water he pressed against the walls to try and get himself that much farther. And then he felt the current begin to weaken. He saw light coming through the water, he was almost there. He just pushed himself a little but more until he was able to break the surface of the water and take a breath of air.

Whitney pulled himself out of the water and just laid there for a few minutes, just taking in air and letting it out again. Yeah he was fairly sure he still needed air.

Fifteen Months Earlier  
Star City: Queen Estate

“Amazing, your whole body is just…amazing really,” Emil said as he checked over the wires and other equipment he had hooked up to Whitney.

“What to translate that one doc?” Whitney asked as he tried his best not to fidgets on the table.

“It’s not just your blood that’s different it’s everything. I though it might be after the last round of test but now I’m sure, everything is enhanced, optimized really because it’s all within human capability it’s just…”

“Amazing?” Oliver said as he entered the room. “So any idea how this happened? Because I’m thinking kryptonite wouldn’t have this kind of effect.”

“That I haven’t been able to workout, the effects of kryptonite are so random it’s imposable to know just what it can do,” Emil answered as he frowned at his computer.

“Kryptonite? What’s that and why would it have done _anything_ do me?” Whitney asked as he glanced between the two.

“Are you sure you’re from Smallville? Everyone from there seems to know about this stuff. Lets see Watchtower also called it something else, what did she call it…meteor rock that’s what she called it, heard of that?” Oliver asked.

“Yeah that stuffs all over Smallville, you think it did this to me? I thought it just let you go through stuff,” Whitney said as he glanced over at his should and the faded tattoo he still had.

“What?”

Present  
33.1 Base: Underreef

Whitney blinked a bit as he stepped out slowly into the sunlight. He gave the field around him a slow once over to make sure no one was around before stepping fully out of the tunnel and into the light.

One of the pluses of Lex being gone and Oliver partly running LuthorCorp was that 33.1 didn’t get any backup when they refused to shut down, Whitney thought as he started walked back toward the woods he could see a few miles off, he’s left his vehicle and the rest of his gear there, next to were he had meant to come out at if things has gone to plan.

Once at the truck he pulled out his bag and pulled out his spare clothing before stripping off the last of his wetsuit and redressing himself in a plain pair of jeans and a simple green shirt and a tan jacket. Giving the woods a last glance Whitney slide into the drivers seat and started it up. Sending a text before he started driving away.

Present  
Metropolis: LuthorCorp building 

“Anything important?” Tess asked as she watched Oliver check his phone when it chimed.

“Nothing that important, just conformation of a job being done,” Oliver smiled back as he looked up at Tess across the board room.

“Then whoever you sent to deal with the Underreef facility got out fine then,” Tess asked with her own smile as she watched Oliver.

“The Underreef facility? You mean one of Lex’s old labs that wouldn’t answer to us, I thought we were sending a security team there tomorrow?” Oliver answered calmly.

“Oliver, I received a urgent request for help last night. Something about being attacked. And you say you had nothing to do with that?” Tess asked as she narrowed her eyes at Oliver.

“What? You think I did something? I was with you all night,” Oliver said grinning as Tess just shook her head and turned back to her paper work.

Two Hours later  
Metropolis: Isis Foundation 

“So I got a report from ‘The Marine’,” Chloe said as she turned making air quotes around the name, “seems he, or she, has taken out another rouge 33.1 base. You know if I’m going to help run this team with you I need to know what its’ members are up to Oliver.”

“And you do Chloe all of them, but The Marine. And you can even contact him if you really need to,” Oliver told Watchtower as he tapped on a few keys and brought up the report.

“But I don’t know if I can trust him. I know everyone else and I know I can trust them with my life, with Clark and your life, but this guy. I don’t know if I can. Has Clark even met him?” Chloe complained as she watched Oliver read the report.

“You can trust him with my life and Clark seemed to think he’s worth respecting and no, before you ask Clark doesn’t know he’s met The Marine but he has. So, by the way, have you,” Oliver told Chloe as he finished reading. “Well Underreef is gone and The Marine is fine. How’s the rest of the team.”

Chloe just glared at Oliver for a few moments before turning back to the computer, “Everyone one else is fine and been accounted for by checking in, something he never does, so if he ever needs help I can’t give it to him,” She added glaring at Oliver again.

“He has the codes for Isis, if he needs help he can call. It’s his choice Chloe. I’m beginning to regret telling you about him.”

“So we all know him, then why won’t he just say hello. It’s really not that hard,” Chloe continued her rant.

“He will when he’s ready. He just needs time.”

A Year and a Half Earlier  
Star City: Queen Estate

“It’s been over six months; Lex isn’t going to be looking as hard now. If you want I can get you in contact with your mother and anyone else from Smillville,” Oliver offered as he and Whitney stood on the top of one of Star city’s builds keeping watch for trouble. The man beside him was silent for long enough that Oliver thought maybe he hadn’t heard him and was about to make the offer again when he answered.

“No. I…I can’t stay in contact, not with Lex still watching at all. I’d only put her in danger and make it harder on her. Right now she’s not worried about me. If she knew…” Whitney stopped as he looked away from Oliver and over at the star bridge that dominated the skyline.

“What about the rest of my team. About half of them know about you already. You okay with the other half finding out?” Oliver said as he searched the streets below them.

“No one from Smallville. I’m not…if I have to hide from my mother it’s just easier not dealing with anything from that place,” Whitney answered.

“Your call. Let me know when you-Muggers at third o-clock,” Oliver announced as he started running toward the two muggers a few blocks away.

The End.


End file.
